So sorta semi-TIL post. For men, smoking cigarettes causes epigenetic changes which means (as I understand it) that the DNA damage caused by smoking is passed on to their children. The male sperm is damaged from the effects of smoking. There is a ‘significant’ chance of it causing “developmental disorders” which includes autism, ADHD and intellectual disability.
Honestly, search for the articles yourself, there are many and it’s an interesting rabbit hole. I do question how long this has been known to the cigarette companies who conduct their own research.
The UK has banned smoking cigarettes for under 16s for a reason. Making such a huge policy change like that must be for a very damaging reason. NZ did too, but pussied out - presumably from the lobbying.
So I just wanted to touch base and ask who has a father who smokes / used to smoke regardless of whether you’ve been officially diagnosed or think you may be autistic?
EDIT: I actually expected lots of downvotes for this post. There’s a great film called “Thank you for smoking” which everyone should watch.
Props to those moms mentioned in this thread that stopped smoking while pregnant. My mom smoked through all three of her pregnancies. As did my dad, right up until the day he died of a heart attack. Which my mom refuses to attribute to 50 years of smoking and about 30 of hard drinking. “Perfectly healthy people have heart attacks all the time.” She also blames the one medication she’s on for her teeth being brown.
Anyway, I have no clue what neurodivergencies my parents had/have because they’ve self-medicated their entire lives. Pretty sure my paternal grandfather was “high functioning” autistic but he died when I was young. My mom’s side of the family heavily leans towards substance abuse, so who knows what that’s hiding.